Illinois Gay-Marriage Bill Stalls Despite Broad Backing

A same-sex marriage bill in Illinois
stalled in the Senate after gaining traction from a coalition
that includes President Barack Obama and the chairman of the
state Republican Party, Pat Brady.

While the bill emerged from a Senate committee yesterday,
the full chamber declined to vote on the measure, raising the
prospect that final action may be delayed until a new
legislative session that begins next week. Sponsors postponed
the vote because some senators who support making Illinois the
10th state to legalize such unions were absent.

If the House of Representatives takes up the measure when
it convenes next week, the Senate may return to vote on it.
While supporters weren’t counting on that, they predicted the
measure would eventually pass.

“Whether next week, next month, this spring or in the
months ahead, freedom to marry for same-sex couples will be won
in the Illinois General Assembly or in the courts,” John
Knight, who handles gay issues for the American Civil Liberties
Union of Illinois, said in a statement from the Chicago office.

On the heels of the first ballot-box victories in November,
the gay-marriage effort took shape quickly during the waning
days of the legislative session, which many lawmakers expected
to be dominated by solving a $97 billion unfunded pension
liability. Elected officials who often avoid commenting on state
matters have added their voices to the debate.

Durbin Support

“I urge you to vote for marriage equality in Illinois so
that our state can be part of the emerging national consensus on
this issue of justice,” Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin
said yesterday in a letter released from his Washington office.

Same-sex couples are now able to marry in nine states and
the District of Columbia, home to a combined 14 percent of the
U.S. population. In November, voters in Washington, Maryland and
Maine approved the practice. While 30 states have constitutional
amendments defining marriage as a pact between a man and a woman
only, Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Jersey and Rhode Island
lawmakers plan to consider or revisit legalization this year.

Brady, the Republican chairman, said he was putting his
“full support” behind the bill. “It strengthens families and
reinforces a key Republican value -- that the law should treat
all citizens equally,” Brady told the Chicago Sun-Times in an
article published Jan. 2.

‘Unfit’ Chairman

A coalition of religious leaders opposes the Illinois bill,
and the National Organization for Marriage pledged yesterday to
defeat any Republican who votes for it. The group also called
Brady “unfit” to continue as chairman of the party. Brady
didn’t return a telephone call seeking comment.

The Washington-based group targeted lawmakers who voted for
same-sex marriage in New York, including two Republicans who
were defeated at the ballot box last year.

“Any Republican in Illinois who betrays the cause of
marriage will be casting a career-ending vote and will be held
accountable to their constituents,” Brian Brown, the group’s
president, said on the organization’s website. “We will spend
whatever it takes.”

No Midwestern legislature has approved same-sex marriage.
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, a Democrats, has said he would sign
the bill into law.

The losing streak for same-sex marriage at the polls ended
Nov. 6, when voters affirmed laws passed by the legislatures of
Washington and Maryland, extended the right to gay Mainers, and
rejected a bid in Minnesota to constitutionally define marriage
as heterosexual. Gay-marriage groups spent $35 million, compared
with $10 million by opponents, according to both sides.

Before then, legalization had come only through legislative
or judicial action as gay marriage was defeated all 32 times it
appeared on a ballot.